Binz served as chairman of the utilities commission from January 2007 to April 2011. He did not reply to a telephone request for comment Thursday.

His regulatory affairs career began in 1984 when he was appointed first director of the Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel and he represented consumers in electric rate cases until 1995.

“Ron was Colorado’s first consumer counsel and has done a lot to promote energy efficiency and new technology,” said Bill Levis, the director of the consumer counsel’s office. “These are things the FERC will have to look at.”

It was fiercely opposed by the coal industry and independent power producers, who tried to get Binz to recuse himself from the case, charging conflicts of interest. Binz rejected the claim.

The act passed, and the utilities commission implemented the law approving the closure of six old coal-fired power plants, the addition of pollution controls at two others and the building of new gas-fired generation — a plan that cost about $1 billion.

Former Republican State Sen. Andy McElhaney filed an ethics complaint against Binz for industry reimbursement for travel to a conference.

The Colorado Independent Ethics Commission ruled that while Binz had not followed state travel policy, he “did not breach the public trust … because Mr. Binz did not personally benefit.”

In April 2011, Binz resigned from the PUC and opened a consulting practice focusing on clean energy policies.

“Ron has represented consumers, and he works well with utilities,” the wind energy association’s Darin said.

Ralph Izzo, chief executive officer of the Public Service Enterprise Group, which operates East Coast utilities, in a statement called Binz’s nomination “a strong and timely choice.”

“Ron has both the experience and intellect to hit the ground running,” Izzo said.

Spain came under repeated attack starting Thursday in what authorities called linked terrorist incidents, when a driver swerved a van into crowds in Barcelona’s historic Las Ramblas district, killing more than a dozen people and injuring scores of others. Early Friday, an attempted attack unfolded in a town down the coast

If there’s one superhero character whose rise might be most tied to the events of World War II, it is Captain America, who emerged from the minds of legends Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and sprung forth from an iconic 1941 debut cover on which Cap smacks Hitler right in the kisser.

A customer dining at Washington’s Oceanaire restaurant noticed an unusual line at the bottom of his receipt: “Due to the rising costs of doing business in this location, including costs associated with higher minimum wage rates, a 3% surcharge has been added to your total bill.”